Creative Writing Tips –

What a plot is and what a story is can be sometimes confusing. If you think they are the same… They are not. A plot is the outline of your story. The story is everything included.

I will illustrate the difference by asking you to visualize two pictures…

1. Visualize a skeleton.

Then

2. Visualize a body.

The skeleton is your plot. It’s the outline of your story. It won’t be visible when we flesh it out but it will still be there, holding your story together.

The body is your story. It’s everything, which our story will contain, including the plot. The story is the plot fleshed out.

What does it mean to ‘flesh it out?’

Let me show you.

I’ll take a brief plot…

A man meets a woman and they fall in love. They encounter great difficulties because their family are against the relationship.

This is the outline of the story.

Now we are going to flesh it out and make it into a story. Fleshing it out means adding things to make this basic plot into a story. To do this we will add the rest of the ingredients such as…

• Setting – Where will our story take place
• Dialogue – What will be said and by whom
• Characters – How many characters will our story contain? Who are they? What is their role?
• Problems – What and how many problems will the couple encounter
• Goal – What is the couple’s goal?
• Conflict – What is the conflict?
• Climax – How is the conflict going to come to its peak?
• Ending – Will their love win in the end?
• And anything else I’ll need in my story

Once we have written up all these ingredients, this will be our plot fleshed out into a story

Great! You finished your piece and now need a headline.
Usually headlines are less than ten words and need to be
expressed in short, expressive, active words. This provides
quick focus and pull in. By waiting until you know what you
are ending up with, it will save you time. You can give a
temporary headline while drafting.

If you have a good lead paragraph, you will find the
headline. If you want to intrigue or hook your readers, look
at the significant points instead. Which idea or thought can
you use as that hook.

Here are some tips on how to write that headline:

* Grab a highlighter and underline the nouns and key words
in your lead paragraph.

* From the key words, imagine yourself composing a
telegram, and each word is costing you $10. Avoid articles
– A, An, The — and prepositions — On, Under, Beside, etc.

* Substitute simple but effective synonyms to keywords. Say
“polls” instead of “elections” or “go on” instead of
“continue.”

* Write headlines that are simple and easy to read. Don’t
use heavy words. Use words that are short and familiar.

* Directly give your story’s main idea at the beginning of
your headline.

* Try and working in the main benefit the reader gets for
reading further. Also, add another benefit in the lead
paragraph, to keep them moving forward.

* Use dynamic and powerful words. Not what you think is
powerful but what you reader is going to think as powerful.

* Always be specific and avoid generalities. “Do this and
you will get this” needs to be specific to be believable.
Provide examples or statistics. Give the result that is
believable to the reader.

* Only use a person’s name in the headline if they are well
known. Provide a link to where someone can find out more
about this person.

* Repeating key words, using weak verbs such as a, an, is,
are, or starting the line with a verb is not recommended.

* If you have to use abbreviations, do so only when the
abbreviation is commonly known to your main target market.
Create a footnote for a definition or place the
abbreviations in parentheses.

* Use numbers only if important and write them in figures
– use B for billion and M for million.

* Even if your statistics are out standing you might night
want to state them. If they are too unbelievable, people
will not buy.

These thirteen tips are not all inclusive to all the tips
and techniques you can use to create headlines. When I
wrote these I wanted to convey some suggestions for the
frequent mistakes I see made or unique recommendations that
will get your headline noticed quickly and build curiosity

 In this free email course, I’ll tell you everything I know about improving your writing, publishing it electronically and in print, and promoting it after the sale.

Two questions you should ask:

(1) What will it cost me?

(2) What does this Michael LaRocca guy know about it?

Answer #1 — It won’t cost you a thing. The single most important bit of advice I can give you, and I say it often, is don’t pay for publication.

My successes have come from investing time. Some of it was well spent, but most of it was wasted. It costs me nothing to share what I’ve learned. It costs you nothing to read it except some of your time.

Answer #2 — “Michael LaRocca has been researching the publishing field for over ten years.”

This quote, from an ezine (electronic newsletter) called Authors Wordsmith, was a kind way of saying I’ve received a lot of rejections. Also, my “research” required 20 years.

But in my “breakout” year (2000), I finished writing four books and scheduled them all for publication in 2001. Then I spent almost a year as an editor and Author Development Specialist for one of my publishers.

After my first book was published, both my publishers closed. Two weeks and three publishers later, I was back on track. All four books were republished, and a fifth will be released in 2004. Written in 2003, no rejections.

See how much faster it was the second time around? That’s because I learned a lot.

2004 EPPIE Award finalist. 2002 EPPIE Award finalist. Listed by Writers Digest as one of The Best 101 Websites For Writers in 2001 and 2002. Sime-Gen Readers Choice Awards for Favorite Author (Nonfiction & Writing) and Favorite Book (Nonfiction & Writing). 1982 Who’s Who In American Writing.

Excuse me for bragging, but it beats having you think I’m unqualified.

Also, I found more editing jobs. That’s what I do when I’m not writing, doing legal transcription, or teaching English in China (my new home). But the thing is, if I’d become an editor before learning how to write, I’d have stunk.

I’ll tell you what’s missing from this course. What to write about, where I get my ideas from, stuff like that. Maybe I don’t answer this question because I think you should do it your way, not mine. Or maybe because I don’t know how I do it. Or maybe both.

Once you’ve done your writing bit, this course will help you with all the other stuff involved in being a writer. Writing involves wearing at least four different hats. Writer, editor, publication seeker, post-sale self-promoter.

Here’s what I can tell you about my writing.

Sometimes a story idea just comes to me out of nowhere and refuses to leave me alone until I write it. So, I do.

And, whenever I read a book that really fires me up, I find myself thinking, “I wish I could write like that.” So, I just keep trying. I’ll never write the best, but I’ll always write my best. And get better every time. That’s the “secret” of the writing “business,” same as any other business. Always deliver the goods.

I read voraciously, a habit I recommend to any author who doesn’t already have it. You’ll subconsciously pick up on what does and doesn’t work. Characterization, dialogue, pacing, plot, story, setting, description, etc. But more importantly, someone who doesn’t enjoy reading will never write something that someone else will enjoy reading.

I don’t write “for the market.” I know I can’t, so I just write for me and then try to find readers who like what I like. I’m not trying to whip up the next bestseller and get rich. Not that I’d complain. Nope, I have to write what’s in my heart, then go find a market later. It makes marketing a challenge at times, but I wouldn’t have it any other way.

When you write, be a dreamer. Go nuts. Know that you’re writing pure gold. That fire is why we write.

An author who I truly admire, Kurt Vonnegut, sweats out each individual sentence. He writes it, rewrites it, and doesn’t leave it alone until it’s perfect. Then when he’s done, he’s done.

I doubt most of write like that. I don’t. I let it fly as fast as my fingers can move across the paper or keyboard, rushing to capture my ideas before they get away. Later, I change and shuffle and slice.

James Michener claims that he writes the last sentence first, then has his goal before him as he writes his way to it.

Then there’s me. No outline whatsoever. I create characters and conflict, spending days and weeks on that task, until the first chapter really leaves me wondering “How will this end?” Then my characters take over, and I’m as surprised as the reader when I finish my story.

Some authors set aside a certain number of hours every day for writing, or a certain number of words. In short, a writing schedule.

Then there’s me. No writing for three or six months, then a flurry of activity where I forget to eat, sleep, bathe, change the cat’s litter… I’m a walking stereotype. To assuage the guilt, I tell myself that my unconscious is hard at work. As Hemingway would say, long periods of thinking and short periods of writing.

I’ve shown you the extremes in writing styles. I think most authors fall in the middle somewhere. But my point is, find out what works for you. You can read about how other writers do it, and if that works for you, great. But in the end, find your own way. That’s what writers do.

Just don’t do it halfway.

If you’re doing what I do, writing a story that entertains and moves you, then you will find readers who share your tastes. For some of us that means a niche market and for others it means regular appearances on the bestseller list.

Writing is a calling, but publishing is a business. Remember that AFTER you’ve written your manuscript. Not during.

I’ve told you how I write. For me.

The next step is self-editing. Fixing all the mistakes I made, that I can identify, in my rush to write it before my Muse took a holiday. Several rewrites. Running through it repeatedly with a fine-toothed comb.

Then what?

There are stories that get rejected because the potential publisher hates them, but far more are shot down for other reasons. Stilted dialogue. Boring descriptions. Weak characters. Underdeveloped story. Unbelievable or inconsistent plot. Sloppy writing.

That’s what you have to fix.

After my fifteen-year hiatus from writing, I started by using Free Online Creative Writing Workshops. What I needed most was input from strangers. After all, once you’re published, your readers will be strangers. Every publisher you submit to will be a stranger. What will they think? I was far too close to my writing to answer that.

Whenever I got some advice, I considered it. Some I just threw out as wrong, or because I couldn’t make the changes without abandoning part of what made the story special to me. Some I embraced. But the point is, I decided. It was my writing.

After a time, I didn’t feel the need for the workshops anymore. I’m fortunate enough to have a wife whose advice I will always treasure, and after a while that was all I needed. But early on, it would’ve been unfair to ask her to read my drivel. (Not that I didn’t anyway.)

I don’t know how far along you are in your writing, but if you’ve never used a workshop, I keep a list of them at http://freereads.topcities.com/creativewritingonline.html.

Your goal when you self-edit is to get your book as close to “ready to read” as you possibly can. You want your editor to find what you overlooked, not what you didn’t know about.

To that end, I offer two resources.

http://freereads.topcities.com/usefullinksforauthors.html contains links to online quotations, grammar and style guides, dictionaries, encyclopedias, thesauruses, scam warnings, writer groups, copyright stuff, etc.

http://freereads.topcities.com/commonwritingmistakes.html contains a list of the most common mistakes I’ve seen in my years as an editor. I still reread it from time to time just so I don’t forget.

Your story is your story. You write it from your heart, and when it looks like something you’d enjoy reading, you set out to find a publisher who shares your tastes. What you don’t want is for that first reader to lose sight of what makes your story special because you’ve bogged it down with silly mistakes.

Authors don’t pay to be published. They are paid for publication. Always. It’s just that simple. And later, I’ll tell you where to get some free editing.

But there’s a limit to how much editing you can get without paying for it. Do you need more than that? I don’t know because I’ve never seen your writing. But if you evaluate it honestly, I Think you’ll know the answer.

As an editor, I’ve worked with some authors who simply couldn’t self-edit. A non-native English speaker, a guy who slept through English class, whatever. To them, maybe paying for editing was an option. This isn’t paying for publication. This is paying for a service, training. Just like paying to take a Creative Writing class at the local community college.

By the way, I don’t believe creativity can be taught. Writing, certainly. I took my Creative Writing class in high school, free, and treasure it. But I already had the creativity, or else it would’ve been a waste of the teacher’s time and mine.

If you hire an editor worthy of the name, you should learn from that editor how to self-edit in the future. In my case it took two tries, because the first editor was a rip-off artist charging over ten times market value for incomplete advice.

That editor, incidentally, is named Edit Ink, and they’re listed on many of the “scam warning” sites mentioned at Useful Links For Authors. They took kickbacks from every fake agent who sent them a client. (I’ll talk about fake agents later.)

If you choose to hire an editor, check price and reputation. And consider that you might never make enough selling your books to get back what you pay that editor. Do you care? That’s your decision.

The first, most important step on the road to publication is to make your writing the best it can be.

** PUBLICATION **

My goal is to be published in both mediums, ebook and print. There are some readers who prefer ebooks, and some who prefer print books. The latter group is much larger, but those publishers are harder to sell your writing to. I want both, because I want all the readers I can get.

Thus, I advocate something of a stepping-stone approach. Publish electronically with a quality place, enjoy the benefits of free editing and almost instant gratification regarding publishing time.

Later, if you think you can sell your book to a traditional print publisher, you have a professionally edited manuscript to submit.

Before you epublish, check the contract to be sure you can publish the edited work in print later.

If you know your book just plain won’t ever make it into traditional print, print-on-demand (POD) is an option. Some of my books fall into this category. The best epublishers will simultaneously publish your work electronically and in POD format, at no cost to you.

A lot of authors swear by self-publication, but the prospect just plain scares me. All that promo, all that self-editing, maybe driving around the countryside with a back seat full of books. I’m a writer, not a salesman. But, maybe you’re different.

I self-published once, in the pre-POD days. Mom handled the sales. I had fun and broke even. With POD, at least it’s cheaper to self-publish than it was in 1989.

If you’re flying solo, POD can range anywhere from US$99 to over $1000. Don’t pay the higher price! Price shop. Also, remember that POD places publish any author who pays, and do no marketing.

Print Publishing vs Electronic Publishing
http://freereads.topcities.com/printpublishing_electronicpublishing.html
This site provides a comparison of the two mediums. Each has plusses and minuses. Even if you already know what epublishing is, take a look.

Electronic Publishers
http://freereads.topcities.com/onlinefictionbooks.html
A list of the ones I believe are reputable and my criteria for selecting them. Plus, a link to award-winning author Piers Anthony’s totally excellent in-depth analysis of many more epublishers than I’ll ever list.

How To Break Into Print Publishing
http://freereads.topcities.com/printpublishing.html
If you’re at the beginning of my stepping-stone approach, seeking an epublisher, you’ll probably just want to bookmark this one for a year or two. That’s fine, because it’s not going anywhere. I plan to use it myself in a year or two. If, on the other hand, you’re ready for traditional print, use it now and I wish you success!

Print-On-Demand Publishing
http://freereads.topcities.com/printondemand.html
What is it? Should you use it? If so, how? What to beware of if you do.

** PROMOTING YOUR PUBLISHED WRITING **

It doesn’t matter how you publish your book. Self-published, epublished, POD, or traditional print publishing from an absolute powerhouse. Marketing falls largely on you, and the same things always work. Book signings, interviews in the local newspapers and on radio.

Start with http://www.kidon.com/media-link/index.shtml. It will allow you to look up all the local media outlets in your area that have websites.

If you write to them all, you’re a spammer. Plus, it’ll take ages. Look for the ones with a legitimate interest and fire away.

If you find a stale URL, and I think you will, look for the name of that media outlet at some place like Google. Spend some time looking for the right press contacts, spend some time writing your press release, and do what you can.

Most of these sites list email, snail mail, and phone calls. Since I live in China, I’ve only used email.

Book reviews, author interviews, book listing sites, and book contests are something we can all do, regardless of where we live. Again, I’m going to give you some web pages to visit. Pages where I keep my resources, so I don’t lose them. Some of the sites I mention do ebooks, and some do not. The POD option can help e-authors here, but balance cost vs. likelihood of gaining enough readers to offset that.

Some are ezines and some are websites. Some are printed newsletters, some are printed magazines, and some are newspapers. This is just a starting point. If you visit them all, and you have time for more promotion, you can find many more.

Book Reviewers, Author Interviews, Book Listing Sites http://freereads.topcities.com/bookreview.html

Book Contests http://freereads.topcities.com/bookcontests.html

Okay, let’s get back to my overseas angle. Aside from two radio interviews and a seminar in Hong Kong, and some emailed press releases to the LOCAL media back in the US which may or may not have succeeded in anything, my marketing has come from the Internet.

I have a website. I have a newsletter. I’m giving away a free ebook, the essence of which you’re reading now. You found me somehow, right?

Here’s the type of message I receive often in email. To be more precise, in spam.

If a million people see your ad, and you get 1% of them, that’s 10,000 readers and therefore $15,000 profit and you only paid $1000 for those million addresses.

NO!! It doesn’t work that way. Need I use the words dot-com bust?

My website is free. My newsletter is free. I don’t buy mailing lists, I don’t harvest email addresses, and I don’t spam. I want interested traffic, not just sheer numbers.

Do you think the Phoenicians tried to sell sails to people a thousand miles from the water?

Internet marketing isn’t a replacement for the methods mentioned above, but a complement to them. And by using it, I got you here.

Your goal in marketing is this. There are certainly people in the world who like what you like. And since you like your book, they probably will too.

But you have to find those readers and make them interested, without spamming them and without just “playing the numbers game.”

If you’re an e-author, let me state the obvious. Nobody buys ebooks who doesn’t have Internet access. Do they? So you definitely need a website.

Traditional print authors need websites too. Even blockbuster authors like J.R. Rowling and Stephen King, who I doubt could garner any more name recognition, have websites. So does every long-established inescapable monstro-business like McDonalds and Coke.

Okay, those folks pay web designers. I’m not doing that. I can’t generate those kinds of sales figures. And yes, I’ve formerly been employed as an HTML programmer. But you can write your own website without even learning HTML if you want. It’s no harder than writing a manuscript with a word processor.

It won’t be super-flashy like the big boys, but it’ll communicate the information. Remember, you can communicate. You’re an author! And that’s what keeps people coming back to a website after the thrill of the flash wears off. Information. Content. Your specialty.

I consider my website and my newsletter to be successful, and I’ve created a free email course to analyze how they got that way. Yes, there are legitimate ways to bring traffic to your website and your newsletter. Not massive numbers overnight, but slow steady growth over the long term.

** CLOSING THOUGHTS **

We’ve been talking about soft sell.

Now, at the end of my free workshop, I’ll tell you about 2 URLs that I think will help you and one that won’t. You can decide if any are worth a visit.

After that, I’ll get back to the lesson.

Books OnLine Directory
http://freereads.topcities.com/
You’ve been to parts of it already and seen that it delivers something you’re looking for. (I hope.) Don’t forget to go back from time to time.

Mad About Books
http://freereads.topcities.com/archive.html
My free weekly email newsletter will keep you up-to-date on the latest info as I find it. Plus, it has a certain goofy charm that the website lacks.

Both URLs mention my books, but in the background. I hope you’ll look one day out of curiosity or because you really like my generous nature, but it’s not mandatory. Soft sell.

From Watha, NC, USA to Shaoxing, Zhejiang, China
http://michaeljan.topcities.com
This site doesn’t mention writing at all. I wrote it for my students. I teach English in China, and this is where I tell all about it. Along with a hefty helping of personal history and photos. How I got here, how I quit a job via email to marry a lovely Australian, dog and cat photos, stuff like that. Just for fun. It won’t help you a bit.

Now let’s get back to your writing. That’s why you’re here.

Here’s something you’ve heard before. When your manuscript is rejected — and it will be — remember that you aren’t being rejected. Your manuscript is.

One reader took me to task for that statement, claiming he’d never been rejected in his life. I’m very happy for him. But why, if I may be so bold as to ask, would he need advice on How To Get Published? I’d rather he write some advice so I can hang up my “helper guy” hat and learn from a master.

But I digress. You aren’t being rejected, I was saying. Your manuscript is.

Did you ever hang up the phone on a telemarketer, delete spam, or close the door in the face of a salesman? Of course, and yet that salesman just moves on to the next potential customer. He knows you’re rejecting his product, not him.

Okay, in my case I’m rejecting both, but I’d never do that to an author. Neither will a publisher or an agent. All authors tell other authors not to take rejection personally, and yet we all do. Consider it a target to shoot for, then. Just keep submitting, and just keep writing.

The best way to cope with waiting times is to “submit and forget,” writing or editing other stuff while the time passes.

And finally, feel free to send an e-mail to me anytime. michaellarocca@yawweb.org. I’ll gladly share what I know with you, and it won’t cost you a cent.

I would wish you luck in your publishing endeavors, but I know there’s no luck involved. It’s all skill and diligence.

Congratulations on completing the course! No ceremonies, no degrees, and no diplomas. But on the bright side, no student loan to repay.

Writing is a creative process and how every writer chooses to create, is individual to them. Likewise, with plotting, every writer plots at a level they are comfortable with.

Some just plot the bare essentials. They have a firm idea of the story they want to write and have a good memory to be able to memorize everything.

Others go into more detail. These writers prefer to figure everything out before they write the story.

How you plot will also depend on your level of experience. For the beginner, it’s recommended to plot thoroughly.

Before writing, think of every possible situation. Plot events thoroughly, plot scenes to the last detail and generally leave no questions unasked or unanswered. This way you will always know where you’re going.

_____________

Are You Using The ‘What If’ Technique When Plotting?

Your short story of 500, 2.000, 10.000 words or whatever word length you choose to write, will spring from a single idea - Perhaps a one-sentence idea.

So when you are still in that one sentence stage, using the ‘What If,’ technique is a good way of generating ideas to build on that initial story idea.

While you are in the plotting stage, experiment. Your aim should be to write the best story you can. Experiment to see what bits and pieces you can put together to write the best story ever.

So using ‘What If,’ ask yourself questions then answer them…

1. What if the character was like this?
2. What if this happened to him?
3. What if I placed him in this situation? How would he react?
4. What if I took this away from him?
5. What if his worst fear came true?
6. What if he doesn’t get what he wants? What will he do?
7. What if I placed this obstacle in his path? What will he do?

You’ll be surprised what you come up with, if you take the time to experiment

 Creative Writing Tips –

Our plotting stage is our testing area.

Everything in the plot should be tested for its effectiveness before we put in into our stories. If you believe something in your plot could be better, make it better.

Figuring everything out in your plot will save you time rewriting later.

So how do you test your plot?

Start with everything that has gone into it.

For example…

• Are the events interesting?
• Does your plot contain problems for the character to solve?
• Have you given your character a goal?
• Is the conflict strong?
• Is the resolution of the conflict interesting?
• Is the character interesting?
• Is the setting of the story interesting?
• Will the incident or situation be interesting to your readers?
• Etc

Make a list of what your plot contains. Comb through it carefully and tick off each item. If you find that some things need to be worked on some more, work on them.

I know to some this might be tedious work, but…

“Every one-minute you spend in planning
will save you at least three minutes in execution.”
Crawford Greenwald

 Have you ever started a creative writing project with great excitement, only to have your interest dwindle as the process, itself, interfere with your creativity? How do you keep the momentum going and continue to enjoy the creative process? Follow these tips for high creativity, fun and success!

1. Create a writing environment that inspires you.

Create a place in your home or outdoors that calls you to write. Consider light, color, sound, scent, taste, writing materials.

2. Follow The Artist’s Way, by Julia Cameron.

I highly recommend this book. It keeps you focused, observant, playful, and creative - and it keeps you believing in yourself as a writer!

3. Choose your writing project in a joyful way.

When choosing a writing project, come from your heart - not your head. Be playful. Be creative about how you choose your project.

4. Make a creative representation of the project’s ideal end.

Draw, paint - use a creative medium other than writing to represent the completed project. Consider, especially, how you will feel when it’s done. Put your model in a prominent place. Use this to trigger the desired feeling, before the completion - every day!

5. Make a timeline with celebration points.

Make it visually appealing. Have a step-by-step outline and celebrate creatively as you complete each step.

6. Create an R&D Team for your project.

Contact a number of your friends, colleagues, and readers. Invite them to join your R&D Team. Send them snippets of what you write, questions you have about the process, or anything else you want input on - on a regular basis. Their input will keep you going.

7. Keep Creating & Editing times separate.

If you edit while you write, the process can become boring. Clearly block a specific amount of time for editing into your schedule. Don’t let it interfere with your creative writing time!

8. If blocked, shake things up!

Do something fun, unusual, active! Get your mind somewhere else and move your body. Your creative side will work in your subconscious while you’re at play. Read the tips in The Artist’s Way. There are also many resources on the internet for handling writers’ block. Check some of these links: http://owl.english.purdue.edu/handouts/general/gl_block.html

http://www.sff.net/people/LisaRC/

http://leo.stcloudstate.edu/acadwrite/block.html

9. Have a Fan Club.

Critics and editors are fine, but have a few friends or family members who you can ask to cheer you on or cheer you up, no matter what you write. Hire a Creativity Coach to keep you focused and to be an unbiased supporter of your creative success!

10. Celebrate in a big way!

When you reach the big finish, give it a big finish! Do something you’ve always wanted to do, but have never done before. Make the finish so memorable that you’ll be eager to begin your next creative writing project!

 1. For me the most important tip is to write, write every day, 365 days a year. Remember practice makes perfect.

2. Very few authors are published on their first attempt; it’s a hard slog and you’ll often want to pact the whole writing business in. It’s then you’ve got to remember patience and perseverance.

3. If you are serious about writing as a career then treat it as such. If you wanted to be a doctor, lawyer, plumber, chef then you’d expect to have to learn the trade. Why should writing be any different? It will pay you to visit workshops and listen to what successful authors have to say. Learn from the masters.

4. I’m a member of a writers group and for me it is essential it helps feed me. Also visit sites like www.abcwritersnetwork.co.uk where you will learn about current creative writing contests. Use these contests to help hone your skills. If you are involved in promoting creative writing locally let them know they will advertise the event for you free of charge.

5. In my early days of writing one of my main faults was my failure to accept criticism. This was one of the problems my writers group helped me overcome.

6. Be cautious of loved ones who tell you that your writing is ‘marvelous,’ quite often they don’t want to offend. I’ve found it best to avoid showing my work to close family until I’ve had it tested elsewhere.

7. Don’t become a writer because you think it is an easy option. It is not. It is hard work. To become successful you have to work 365 days a year. There are very few other jobs that demand that sort of commitment. Maybe after you’ve hit the big time you can drop that down to six months in the year – maybe.

8 Carry a note book. If you get a sudden idea write it down. Ideas are like dreams they are very soon forgotten, but ideas are also like oak trees they can grow mighty big.

9. Believe in yourself, if you have what it takes to be successful then you will succeed. If you haven’t then you’ll soon know.

10. Finally Maeve Binchy gives this advice ‘write as you talk.’ Also write about what you know. I know that’s old hat but its true nevertheless.

Looking for a bit of help with creative writing? Be sure to check back as we will be featuring a wide variety of creative writing articles shortly.